Antonio Diaz Wins Tight Struggle

ONTARIO-Antonio Diaz won a closely fought eight round battle over Arizona’s Mario Ramos in a welterweight bout at the Doubletree Hotel.

Diaz (45-5-1, 29 KOs) started quick but slowed down against the southpaw Ramos (17-5-1) who began finding the range for his left hands. The judges scored it 77-75, 79-73, 80-72 for Diaz.

“I thought I did better than the last time I fought,”said Diaz, who has a three-fight win streak since coming out of retirement. “There wasn’t any rust this time.”

The Arizona fighter began finding the range for some of his punches and Diaz slowed a bit in the last three rounds and allowed Ramos to gain momentum.

“If you look at Diaz his face was swollen from the jabs I was landing,” said Ramos, who had not fought in 18 months. “I’d like to fight him in a rematch for at least 10 rounds.”

Diaz said he spotted former welterweight title contender Alfonso Gomez in the crowd and would love to fight the Whittier resident.

“He’s got a big name. That would be a good fight,” said Diaz.

In the semi main event, Riverside’s Mauricio Herrera (8-0, 3 KOs) stepped up in class and dominated Tijuana’s Pavel Miranda (18-3) in an eight round welterweight bout and stopped him in the last round at 1:00. Using a stiff jab and accurate combinations the undefeated boxer proved to perplexing for the taller Mexican fighter.

From the first round it was obvious that Herrera had the quicker hands and repeatedly caught Miranda with a stiff jab that snapped his head back. That jab and his defensive prowess proved to short circuit the Tijuana fighter’s ability to mount an attack.

Miranda had his moments, but every time he landed a left hook or right hand, he would absorb four and five-punch combinations driving him backward.

In the eighth round, Herrera could not miss with his combos and was battering Miranda mercilessly until referee Ray Corona stopped the fight.

It was a good call.

Herrera is trained by Mira Loma’s Willy Silva, who formerly trained Carlos Bojorquez.

Rialto’s Dominic Salcido (17-1, 9 KOs) returned to the win column with a fifth round technical knockout at 2:59 of the round over Celestino Rodriguez (6-13-3) of Puerto Rico. The speedy lightweight scored a knockdown in the fourth round and two knockdowns in the fifth.

Tijuana’s veteran Omar Salado (20-1-2) out-battled rugged Jose Albuquerque (8-5-2) of Brazil in an eight-round flyweight bout. All three judges scored it for Salado 79-73 twice and 78-74.

San Bernardino’s Malcolm Franklin (1-0) scored a first round knockdown and survived a sharp rally by Huntington Park’s Alex Sonorio (0-1) to win by unanimous decision in a four round flyweight bout.

In a featherweight bout Tijuana’s Juan Burgos (20-0) won by majority decision over Colombia’s Jesus Ruiz (24-22-3) in a slow uneventful eight rounds. Referee Gwen Adair scored it 76-76, James Jen Kin 77-75, David Mendoza 79-73.

Attending the fight was Harold Lederman of HBO fame, Chris Arreola, Mando Muniz, Kaliesha West, Marilyn Salcido, Julio Diaz, and WBC junior welterweight titleholder Tim “Desert Storm” Bradley.

Bradley said he’s slated to fight the winner between WBO titleholder Kendall Holt and former champion Ricardo Torres.